The Major scale, is one of the most commonly used scales. As well as being the foundation of western music theory, great for solos and improvisation, it also makes a fantastic warm-up.

Move the first note (the root) to any fret to change the “key”. For example, starting the scale on the third fret of the E string (G) will make the scale’s key G major. Try playing this over a G major chord.

G Major Scale Tab

This is the Major scale, in the key of G Major

e |----------------------------------------------2--3--2-------------------------------------------|
B |---------------------------------------3--5-------------5--3------------------------------------|
G |------------------------------2--4--5-------------------------5--4--2---------------------------|
D |--------------------2--4--5---------------------------------------------5--4--2-----------------|
A |----------2--3--5-----------------------------------------------------------------5--3--2-------|
E |---3--5------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5--3-|

To change key, use the same shape, just move it all up by the same number of frets. The best way to learn the scale is to start with the middle finger and use 1 finger per fret, this also makes changing key a breeze as your fingers become the shape.

Homework Task

Compose a basic riff or lick within the Major scale:

e |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
B |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
G |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
D |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
A |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

The minor pentatonic scale, is a five note scale. It is great for improvised solos or “riffs” and one of the most commonly used scales. Compared to the natural minor scale, it just omits the 2nd and 6th interval (but don’t worry if you don’t understand this yet, check our other lessons afterwards).

Move the first note (the root) to any fret to change the “key”. For example, starting the scale on the fifth fret of the E string (A) will make the scale’s key A minor. Try playing this over an A Minor Chord.

Minor Pentatonic Tab

This is the Minor pentatonic scale, in the key of A Minor

e |------------------------------------------5--8--5----------------------------------|
B |-----------------------------------5--8-------------8--5---------------------------|
G |----------------------------5--7---------------------------7--5--------------------|
D |---------------------5--7----------------------------------------7--5--------------|
A |--------------5--7-----------------------------------------------------7--5--------|
E |-------5--8------------------------------------------------------------------8--5--|

Now take a look at the scale below:

Blues Minor Tab

This is the Minor blues scale, in the key of A Minor

e |------------------------------------------5--8--5----------------------------------|
B |-----------------------------------5--8-------------8--5---------------------------|
G |----------------------------5-7-8-------------------------8--7--5------------------|
D |---------------------5--7-----------------------------------------7--5-------------|
A |--------------5-6-7-----------------------------------------------------7-6-5------|
E |-------5--8-------------------------------------------------------------------8--5-|

This is the Blues scale, very similar to the minor pentatonic. The Blues scale is commonly used in Blues music but also a wide variety of Rock music and solos. For an extra bluesy sound, play this over an A Major chord, it will also fit nicely over an A Minor chord or C Major.

Homework Task

Compose a basic riff within the minor pentatonic scale:

e |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
B |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
G |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
D |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
A |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

A barre chord is a way of playing chords up the neck using the technique “barring”, to press down multiple strings with one finger. Barre chords are sometimes necessary to play chords in certain keys without a capo, they are also useful for learning songs quickly and songwriting.

How to Play a Barre Chord

1. To play a barre chord you must first take an open chord shape (most commonly E or A Major or Minor).

2. You will need your first finger (index) free in order to barre, which usually means changing how you play the chord.

3. Now barre your first finger over the desired fret, let’s just barre the 3rd fret for now.

4. Once you’ve found the barre fret, build the chord from the barre as if the barre was fret 0 or a capo.

Tab example of a G Major Barre Chord

(using the E chord shape/voicing)

e |——-3—————————————————————|
B |——-3—————————————————————|
G |——-4—————————————————————|
D |——-5—————————————————————|
A |——-5—————————————————————|
E |——-3—————————————————————|

You can use chord charts to play the barre chords, just remember to keep your index finger free.

If you’d prefer to work out the fret numbers for a chord, simply take the barre fret number (in this example, fret 3)

Now add this number to each of the usual fret number.

In our tabbed example, open / fret 0 becomes fret 3 (our barre), fret 1 becomes fret 4, and fret 2 becomes fret 5. It’s useful to know this simple method to check

If we’re trying to play a B minor chord using an E voicing, we must find a B note on the E string and build the chord using this as a root, see below:

C – the root is on the A string

A – the root is on the A string

G – the root is on the E string

E – the root is on the E string

D – the root is on the D string

Guitar Stand/Wall Hanger

Don’t leave you’re valuble guitars lying around or leant up against the table, thats how headstocks break off and thats how you spend a fortune on repairs!!!

Guitar Capo

Capo

Want to play in different tunings/keys without retuning the guitar? Here’s the solution! Buy one here.

Don’t lose your guitar to gravity!!

Straplocks

Similar to the wall hanger, this thing saves guitar lives! Avoid unwanted mishaps and expensive repairs.

Protect your ears!!

Earplugs

Even more important than saving your guitar is saving your ears if you’re playing in any kind of band environment. It may have been alright for Beethoven but if you can’t hear then you’re probably going to have a hard time playing music.

Keep your plectrums organised!

Pick Holder

Are you fed up of your picks ALWAYS disappearing (I know I am) this are a handy way to keep them with your guitar at all times.

Honourable Mention

Clip on Tuner

This is aimed more specifically for acoustic guitars without a mic/pickup in them. A clip-on is far more effective than using the mic on a plug in tuner, they’re also compact and can be used for electrics and bass. Buy one here.

Speaker Cables & Instrument cables
Many believe these cables are interchangeable, or even the same, but this is simply not the case. Speaker cables contain much thicker wires (two wires in fact) to handle the high power signal from the amp. – They are low impedance and don’t get as hot during use. Instrument cables contain a single wire and shielding and are high impedance.

Speaker cables are not shielded as the high power signal is not susceptible to noise, but use a speaker cable for your bass or guitar and it will sound horribly noisy, they are not interchangeable. Using an instrument cable between a head and cab could potentially break the connection due to heat, which would in turn damage the head.

If you don’t believe me, or want to find out more, see Fender’s own post on the subject: http://www.fender.com/news/why-instrument-cables-and-speaker-cables-arent-interchangeable/

True-Bypass Pedals
The belief is that a pedal without true-bypass is inferior and will ruin your tone. This belief stems from the fact that a normal guitar pedal, when connected but not engaged can still affect (or colour) the signal passing through.

True bypass “bypasses” or removes the pedals circuitry from the signal chain completely, travelling from the pedal’s input to output jack without colouration. It is true that a pedal without TB’s buffer stage is active when connected, but only in poor quality pedals does the buffer have a negative effect on tone.

So why even have a buffer? Well the buffer is there to boost the signal, converting it from high impedance to low impedance, this allows it to travel a greater length of cable without signal loss. So as you can see, a good quality buffer will actually prevent colouration from the cable. This complicates the debate considerably and makes it down to individual circumstances: what pedals? how long a cable? etc.

I think the important thing to take away is that both options have pros and cons, don’t just buy into the hype and go straight for all true-bypass pedals, or think that a pedal that is not true-bypass will not be good. One popular method to get the best of both is to incorporate two buffered pedals, one first in the chain and one last, using true bypass pedals for the rest. On a similar note, many people believe single pedals are better than multi fx, but it is not that simple. Good quality multi fx pedals can do digital effects well and as with most things beauty is in the eye (or ear) of the beholder!

Bigger Amp = Bigger Sound?
The smaller/lower wattage tube amps when cranked are being used at their full potential, and can sound bigger than an amp many times it’s pricetag, so a smaller amp may sound better. With solid state amps there’s not a lot of difference in sound from a more powerful/higher wattage amp vs a small one and they do not respond to “cranking” the volume in the same way. With speakers however, a 4×12 cab will most likely sound “bigger” than a single speaker combo. The type of speaker also comes into play at this point though. Unless you’re playing stadiums, a 50-100w valve combo is plenty for a live rig and your back will thank you, it will often be miked up anyway. I’ve even gigged on an 18w valve head and had headroom to spare. Remember doubling wattage does not double volume, in fact 100w is only slightly louder than 50w! Buying an amp which is appropriate for the situation it will be used in is the best approach.

“Quality” Cables.
While I agree that a good quality cable will often sound better than a particularly poor quality cable due to shielding etc, virtually any cable from a reputable guitar store will be good enough quality. The capacitance of a cable does cause some of the top end to be rolled off, and this is often undesired, but remember this: most of the legendary tones we guitarists try to emulate, were made using poor quality cables. The most important factors when choosing a cable is length (this increases capacitance), followed by quality of shielding and durability. Consider what sound you want before spending big money on something which will only have a relatively small bearing on tone. You can even learn to solder your own cable fairly easily, getting the best of both, quality & value.

Particularly high quality cables often last longer and/or come with a guarantee so it may be worth paying that little bit extra for peace of mind, depending on the price. Gold plating does not have any affect on sound quality, though it can potentially increase life of the cable.

Getting What You Pay For
This comes on from the previous point nicely, the same concept applies to all sorts of guitar/audio equipment. For example two “identically” specced, guitars will often sound significantly different with one being inferior to the other. There are some quality bargain equipment steals out there. There’s plenty of guitars which have been well thought out, expertly crafted and sold at a reasonable margin for whatever reason: unpopular/new brand, low marketing budget, discontinuing stock etc. Research, shop around, haggle and most importantly try out the guitar before buying, whenever possible try the EXACT guitar you are paying for to make sure it is right for you. Don’t just buy into the brand instead of working out what you want.

Two-hand finger tapping:
This popularly sought after legato technique brings the picking hand into the legato, allowing hammering on and pulling off of multiple notes very quickly and gives a wider reach of the neck than normally possible. It’s really a great solo technique – or just show-off-to-your-mates technique!

e |-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
B |-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
G |-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
D |-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
A |-------5h7-12------5h7-12------5h7-12-------5h7-12---------------------|
E |-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
               T           T           T            T
The T here is the note you "tap" ie hammer on with your picking hand.

Hammer-On from nowhere
The hammer-on from nowhere is similar to the hammer-on we already learned, but in this case we’re going to hammer-on to a string other than the plucked one. This may sound easy but you are relying entirely on your finger’s strength this time.

e |-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
B |-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
G |-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
D |-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
A |-------5---------------------------------------------------------------|
E |--------h7-------------------------------------------------------------|

Homework Task – Print this & write a legato lick using each legato technique we have learned.

e |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
B |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
G |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
D |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
A |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

e |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
B |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
G |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
D |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
A |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Legato techniques explained:
Hammer ons are when you pluck a fretted or open note, and then “hammer on” another finger to a different fretted note. The tip is in the name here, imagine your finger is a hammer and you have to hammer in a nail, it has to be a quick, precise action to result in a clean sounding note. You use hammer-ons when going to a higher note.

Pull-offs are the same thing, in the opposite order, ie you pluck a fretted note but then “pull off” that finger either to another finger which was already pressed down, or to open. The key to a good pull off is pulling down off the string using plenty of strength, simply lifting your finger from the string will not work. You use pull-offs when going to a lower note or open.

Thumb positioning/overall positioning and finger strength is crucial for good legato playing, visit the beginners section for some universally helpful lessons if you need to brush up or build further strength.

Legato Tab – h means hammer the note, p means pull off!

e |-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
B |-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
G |-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
D |-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
A |-------5h7--------7p5--------5p0---------0h5---------------------------|
E |-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
Please note that in printed tab, often a curved line (frown) is used to represent legato.

Key Points About Legato

• Practice slowly, focussing on precise, strong movement

• Legato is the key to speedy lead lines

• Combine confident legato “rolls” with scales and you’re half way to shred-city!

Homework Task – Print this & write a simple legato lick

e |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
B |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
G |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
D |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
A |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

e |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
B |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
G |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
D |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
A |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

WAIT! GIVE ME MORE LEGATO!
Trills - this is where you use legato in rapid succession between 2 notes:
e |------5h8p5h8p5h8p5h8-------------------------------------------------------------|
B |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
G |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
D |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
A |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
Note this is sometimes written as "trill" on tab - don't confuse this with tremolo!
For even more legato, master this lesson then move on to our "Advanced Legato" lesson (coming soon!).

Did you know?
The opposite of legato is staccato, meaning notes are clearly separated.

Tuning Up
The first stage of setting up is to tune the guitar, you’ll find more info on this in our post about tuning.

TUNE!

Types of Amplifiers
Tube (Valve) or Solid State – this affects the tone only, tube are typically preferred but more expensive.
Combo or Half Stack – combos are simple to set up, whereas half stacks require impedance to be matched.

Goes to 11.

Plugging In
Before plugging the guitar in, you must always check some basic things:

If the amp is using an external cab, is it connected & the correct load for the amp?
If unsure, ask a sound technicia in order to avoid damaging equipment.
Is the volume all the way down? Otherwise you may get a nasty surprise!

If the amp has a standby switch, (a second power switch usually on the front and next to the main switch) this means it is a tube amp and must warm up. Make sure you have allowed the amp to warm up before turning the amp on fully. To do this, turn on the power switch making sure the standby switch is off, then after a minute or two, plug one end of the guitar cable into the “input” and turn on the standby switch, this increases the life of the equipment. Make sure your guitar is plugged into the amp.

Troubleshooting
If no sound comes out the amp, there are some simple steps to troubleshoot what is wrong:
The first thing to check is whether everything is plugged in, and to the right plug. First disconnect any pedals, now check the power lead from the wall, then the speaker cable to an external cab (if using one), double check the impedance at this point, as if it is wrong you may have already caused some damage and should stop what you are doing. Check the guitar is connected to the amp, and if everything appears to be connected, make sure you haven’t mixed up any cables, e.g plugging the speaker into the footswitch port, these are usually clearly labelled on the amp. Finally ensure the amp is fully turned on not just on standby and check you have indeed plugged the guitar into the amp!

If everything is connected and turned on correctly, the next step is checking volumes are not at 0. There are often multiple volumes on an amp, if there is a gain control on the selected channel, a channel volume and a master volume, make sure none of them are at 0, don’t confuse a “master reverb” control for “master volume” whilst doing this, leave the reverb alone!

Dialing In The Tone
Decide the type of tone you want based on the music:
If it’s hard rock or metal you’ll want a fair bit of gain, if it’s softer you’ll want the gain very low.
Make sure there isn’t reverb enabled on the amp unless it’s desired for the genre or specific tone you want.

Finally, decide the balance or EQ of the tone, and dial in the bass, middle and treble controls, making sure you start with them at 12 or 1 o clock (usually 5 or 6 out of 10). A bassy tone makes the guitar sound thicker, as a rule of thumb the “middle” or “mid” control should never be too low, as it is what gives guitar its clarity and makes up most of the spectrum. Even with the heaviest of metal, when it’s suggested you scoop mids, I don’t recommend scooping the mids out completely, but this partly depends on your equipment and tone you are looking for. Treble can give a guitar sound some sparkle and fidelity but will sound harsh if too high.

PRO TIP: Use an actual speaker cable, not just any old jack cable. Contrary to popular belief: THEY ARE NOT THE SAME!
Speaker cables contain much thicker wires (two wires in fact) to handle the high power signal from the amp. – They are low impedance and don’t get as hot during use. Instrument cables contain a single wire and shielding and are high impedance.

Speaker cables are not shielded as the high power signal is not susceptible to noise, but use a speaker cable for your bass or guitar and it will sound horribly noisy, they are not interchangeable.

If you don’t believe me, or want to find out more, see Fender’s own post on the subject: http://www.fender.com/news/why-instrument-cables-and-speaker-cables-arent-interchangeable/

How to play a Power Chord
A power chord is played by fretting a note on the E or A string (most commonly) and fretting a note two frets up, and one string up in pitch. For example, a power chord can be played with the 3rd fret on the E string, & the 5th fret on the A string plucked together.

Power Chord Tab
This is a simple song section using only power chords!

e |-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
B |-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
G |-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
D |---------------------------------------5----------------7--------------|
A |-------5-------5-------3-------5-------3----------------5--------------|
E |-------3-------3-------1-------3---------------------------------------|

Note: Once you’re comfortable with these two-finger power chords, try adding the D string on the same fret as you’re playing A string, this creates a richer sound.

Key Points About Power Chords

• Power chords can be moved to any fret without changing finger position

• Power chords are neither major or minor

• Power chords are not as detailed or rich sounding as full open chords like E Major, or barre chords

Where to use Power Chords

Power chords can be used as the basis for a song’s rhythm section, or can be used in place of full open chords (E Major etc) if you are struggling to play a difficult song as it was intended. Often power chords will be used when there is heavy distortion on a guitar’s tone, whereas they are less common on acoustic and clean guitar. There is a power chord equivalent to every common chord & as power chords are neither major or minor, they make it easy to create a good sounding song without any music theory.

Homework Task – Print this & write a simple power chord song

e |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
B |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
G |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
D |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
A |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

e |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
B |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
G |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
D |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
A |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|